Archive for the ‘Bands’ Category
Montage
May 16th, 2008 | 
Author: MySpace (listen to “Daydream,” “Get at Me”)
Official site
Hometown: San Jose
Next local show: None planned
Recent release: The M Album, 2008
By Stamati Horiates
Born and raised in the South Bay, Montage is a rising young artist you’d better get to know soon. Currently in the midst of recording his second album, The O Album, Montage has performed in clubs throughout the Bay Area as well as at the ESPN Summer X-Games, and has made an appearance on The World Famous Wake up Show with Sway and Tech. He’s also in the process of shooting a music video for the song “Get at Me.” There’s no question this rapper’s journey has taken flight. But how has he come this far? If you ask him, he will tell you straight up: “Persistence.”
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Halou
MySpace (listen to “Stonefruit,” “Albatross”)
Official site
Hometown: San Francisco
Next local show: None listed
Recent release: Wholeness and Separation, 2006
Halou’s roots extend back fifteen years to a chance meeting between future husband and wife Ryan (songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist) and Rebecca (vocalist) in a Santa Cruz record store owned by Ryan’s father. The Cosebooms made music making a priority, and soon headed up to San Francisco to develop what we now know as Halou: a down-tempo/electronica trio dubbed “one the of the best bands in America” by Seattle tastemaker KEXP and “one of the most intriguing groups on the modern musical landscape” by the All Music Guide.
Golden Birds
MySpace (listen to “Sugarbear,” “Thermometer”)
Official site
Hometown: Berkeley
Next local show: Stay tuned; Spring shows promised!
Upcoming release: TBA, 2007?
Golden Birds are still the best Bay Area indie rock band no one’s heard of. And the group’s 2005 LP Carrier is one of the best local CDs we’ve heard in years. You can quote us on that. Although the band has kept a low profile through infrequent shows and limited recordings, especially over the past year or so, what it has produced is pure gold — rhythmic, melodic, entrancing gold. The core of the group — singer/guitarist Webster McBride and bassist Karl Tupper — actually formed as Carrier in 2003, changing to Golden Birds upon discovering another indie rock group of the same name in Colorado.
Josh Fix
MySpace (listen to “Don’t Call Me in the Morning,” “Jethro”)
Official site
Hometown: San Francisco
Next local show: 3/22, Red Devil Lounge
Upcoming release: Free At Last, 2007
I had to do a double-take to make sure I wasn’t listening to some lost Queen tracks instead of the full-length debut of 29-year-old San Francisco musician Josh Fix. No kidding. His production values are top-notch, his vocals and instrumental parts fully realized, and his songwriting consistently glorious — replete with melodies, harmonies, hooks, and all the pleasures of grandiose ’70s pop-rock. But unlike Freddie Mercury, Fix never goes over the top — though he has retained the soaring background chorus vocals.